Information Issued by the Association of Jewish Refugees in Great Britain 8 Fairfax Mansions
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Vol. IX No. 12 DECEMBER, 1954 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH REFUGEES IN GREAT BRITAIN 8 FAIRFAX MANSIONS. Olfice and Consultinr Hours: FINCHLEY ROAD (Corner Fairfax Road), Monday to Thurtdar\Oi,m.—\ p.m. 3—«p.m. LONDON, N.W.3 Wda). 10 a.m.—1 p.m. Telephone: MAIda Val« 9096/7 (General Office) MAIda Vale 4449 (Employmanc Aiancy) THE FIRST STEP A FRIEND OF THE PERSECUTED Agreement between Council and JRSO Winston Churchill at Eighty On numerous occasions we had to inform our readers of our unsuccessful attempts to If it is true that great men's meetings witMl wisdom of humanity. In a message recentty the obtain a share in the heirless, unclaimed and Jews abide as a blessing, then the! 1 to the Jews of America on the three hundredth communal property restituted jn the Ameri greatest Englishman of this age has shown] anniversary^ of their settlement, he pointed can Zone of Germany to the Jewish Restitu Ws mettle by few tokens more impressively out that the U.S. " owes its great position tion Successor Organization (JRSO). ^an by his long devoted friendship for the in no small degree to the ready welcome The Council of Jews from Germany, speak House of Israel. That it fell to him to lead which }'ou have always extended to those ing for the former German Jews now dis ^1 civilised mankind in the struggle against who were victims of persecution in their own persed all over the world, has time and again Nazidom, appears, so considered, a thing of homes on account of race, religion or politics." emphasised the right of the group it represents iiew and perhaps providential significance, He added: "In pursuing this wise and re to a share in the assets recovered by JRSO. fn this man who confessed to haxnng always warding policy the rulers of the United States These assets had been built up by Jews peen on the side of the Jews and " believed have followed the course begun by British residing for generations in the countries of 'n their invincible power to survive," some administration in colonial days." Bavaria, Hesse, Badenia and Wuerttemberg, of the prophet's vision seems to be fulfilled In these words he was essentially reaffirm and in Berlin; it therefore seemed a matter *hich saw Gentiles taking hold of a Jew, ing what he had written at the very outset of right, both moral and legal, that part of Saying, " We will go with you, for we have of his political career, over 50 years ago. In them should be used by the survivors of the heard that God is with you." a little-known letter of May 30, 1904, former communities for the same social and Winston Churchill certainly understood addressed to the late Nathan Laski (father cultural purposes which they once served in that the story of the Jews is written bj' a of Neville, Q.C.), he, then a Liberal candidate Germany. hand more mighty than man's. He saw the for North-West Manchester, denounced the For a number of years the Council's claim Power that planted Israel again in the first modern Aliens Bill then before Parlia to a share in these assets was denied by the Promised Land when he spoke, in 1949, of ment. That inhospitable Bill, he declared, Executive of JRSO, and the Council had, ' an event in world history' to be viewed in could only " commend itself to those who therefore, no other course left but to with the perspective not of a generation or a like patriotism at other people's e.xpense and draw from that organisation. century, but in the perspective of a thousand, admire Imperialism on the Russian model," two thousand or even three thousand years." for it " appealed to insular prejudice against Our readers also know that the application A Zionist foreigners, to racial prejudice against Jews, of the Council to have some of its social and and to labour prejudice against competition." cultural projects financed out of the German He frequently proclaimed himself, boldly, payments to the Conference on Jewish a Zionist. " I am a Zionist, one of the But, Churchill went on, remembering the Material Claims against Germany was equally original ones after the Balfour Declaration, Huguenot story, " the working men are not rejected in 1954. The grant of small contri and I have worked faithfully for it," he said so selfish as to be unsympathetic towards the butions to some South American affiliates of 3- few months ago. To him it was " a most victims of circumstances or oppression. They the Council could not be considered as an Wonderful thing " that the State of Israel do not respond in any marked degree to the adequate consideration of the just claims of should have " established itself so effectively, antisemitism which has darkened recent the former German Jews. turning the desert into fertile gardens and continental history, and I for one believe that they will disavow an attempt to shut We are now glad to inform our friends of thriving townships, and should have afforded an agreement the Council has reached with tefuge to miUions of their co-reUgionists who out the stranger from our land because he is poor or in trouble, and will resent a measure leading representatives of JRSO in Paris. Suffered so fearfully under Hitler—and not There, on November 2, a Round Table Con Only under Hitler—persecution." which without any proved necessity smirches those ancient traditions of freedom and ference took place in which the claims of the The thought of persecution, both of the Continued an page 2. col. 1 ^vil of it and, even more, the mercy that hospitality for which Britain has been so long Ought to attend upon suffering and the renowned." advantage that must reward kindness, has Warner of the " Locust Years " CHANUKAH BAZAAR always been present in his mind. He To these principles he remained faithful, of the expressed the thought in his Life of the Duke although he could not prevent the inglorious A.J.R. Handicraft Group of Marlborough, his forebear, where he wrote Aliens Acts either of 1905 or of 1920. Having Now on until Chanukah of the Huguenot refugees in England. been outraged by Czarist cruelty, he was at 8 Fairfax Mansions, N.W.3, Bringing their arts and crafts vnth them, naturally revolted by Nazi barbarism. Room No. 3 they were received with sympathy and Throughout the murky period which he has hospitality from every class . welcomed called the Locust Years, his voice, perhaps Monday-Thursday lOa.m.-l p.m.,3-6 p.m. not eis aUens but as brothers by the English with Sir Austen Chamberlain's, was the only Friday, 10 a.m.-l p.m. working-folk, and the foundations of im one of some caUbre to beckon against the Saturday, December 11, 5-8 p.m. portant future industries were laid by their German peril, forcibly and consistently, Sunday, December 12, 10 a.m.-l p.m., 3-6 skill and trade secrets." though always he seemed careful to direct p.m. The Wisdom of Humanity no special attention to the antisemitic Wide selection of articles Later, in the desperate days of August element of the peril. For he realised that Come and buy 1940, he took occasion to expose not only the danger threatened by no means the Jews the infarny but also the improvidence of Nazi alone. After the war (while in opposition), SPACE DONATED BY persecution which, he said, by driving the he effectively recalled what is occasionally S. F. 4 O. HALLGARTEN Jews out, enabled " our science to be apt to be forgotten nowadays, " how horrible Winei and Spirita definitely ahead of theirs." By contrast he were the plans the enemy had formed for IwtporUTt & Etporttrt CKVTCBSD FRIARS, LONDON, E.CS stressed the sound sense of tolerance and the Continued on page 2, col 2 Page 3 AJR INFORMATION December, 1954 THE FIRST STEP [continued) A FRIEND OF THE PERSECUTED country, and I understand resisting them if Council of Jews from Germany both against (continued) they try to monopolise power in any walk JRSO and the Claims Conference were the treatment of our population " ; " The of life; but what is the sense of being against discussed. great bulk of the adult males were to be a man simply because of his birth ? How shipped across into Europe and there toiled can any man help how he is born ? " On the part of JRSO Mr. Monroe Gold- " Putzi" must have repeated this to water, New York, its President, Mr. Moses A. to death as slaves. The whole country was to be ruined and subjugated to a vile and Hitler, Churchill remarks in his Memoirs, for Leavitt, the Director-General of the American the next day he called to say that the Fiihrer Joint Distribution Committee, Mr. G. wicked despotism and tyianny." Yet he was long considered a crank, an would not be coming to the hotel that after Josephthal, Mr. Laor, Mr. M. Kreutzberger, noon. " Thus Hitler lost his only chance of Mr. B. B. Ferencz, Director of JRSO, and unwelcome gloom-monger, and none can have so much cause as Jews to sympathise meeting me. Later on when he was all- Mr. Saul Kagan, Secretary of the Claims powerful, I was to receive several invitations Conference, attended the Round Table Con with his "sensation of despair" in 1935: " To be so entirely convinced and vindicated from him. But by that time a lot had ference, which was held under the chairman happened and I excused myself." ship of Mr.